We are two retired Americans in our 70's who have been coming to Chiang Mai every winter for 90 days on a Tourist Visa for several years. This year we would like to take a tour of Bhutan prior to beginning our stay in Chiang Mai. The problem is the tour begins with an overnight stay in Bangkok prior to departing for Bhutan. Would our Tourist Visa be "activated" upon arriving at BKK even though we would have our tour itinerary in hand and would only be staying overnight.

Or, would we get a 30 day visa on arrival and be able to save our Tourist Visa for two weeks later when we return to Thailand to begin our 90 day stay? We would appreciate any and all responses and/or ideas on how to handle this issue.

Thanks in advance,

Bob & Fran

Edited June 13, 201313 yr by lopburi3
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Most likely your Tourist Visa will be activated.

You do not tell us about how long your Bhutan trip will last.

Bhuton stay about 12-14 days.

You can ask immigration to give you a visa exempt entries, but there are no guarantees. If you want to be sure, apply for a double entry tourist visa.

If you want to try immigration, do not fill out the visa number on your entry card!

There is also an honorary Royal Thai Consulate in Bhutan that could issue the visa if planning to be in that town several days.

http://www.royalthaiconsulate.bt/?q=node/2

The chances are very good that they will use the first entry of your tourist visa. In that case you could get a re-entry (1200 baht) permit at the airport before you depart Bangkok which would keep that 60 day entry valid.

Or get a two entry tourist visa instead of single which would be almost equal in cost as the re-entry permit.